Frozen Core
by kindredghosts
Summary: The world is saved! The environment has been cleaned up and nature is healing itself. As Sam walks around tending to her garden, a chill threatens the very balance of nature. How will she deal with this upset in harmony? One shot. Angst. (Trigger Warning in the Author's Notes). Made as a gift for 2015's Christmas Truce.


**Author's Notes**

So here is the trigger warning (which is a spoiler) for anyone who needs it: (There is a character death and some violence.)

As stated in the summary this was a Christmas Truce gift that was hosted on tumblr this past Christmas.

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The garden was lovely today.

Cosmos smiled towards the expanse of sky above, and the orchids sent warm wishes through their wonderful scent. A soft hum of bumblebees could be heard as they hovered around Forget-Me-Nots. The Hibiscuses were as vibrant as the roses were delicate.

Sam walked through the garden underneath a wooden arch that was covered in emerald coloured snaking vines. And lining the garden were all kinds of trees. Spruce. Pine. Maple. Walnut. Apple.

Sam stroked the petals of a violet Lily.

This place was so peaceful and beautiful. She wished she could spend the rest of her life in here, with the butterflies that fluttered about and the gentle trickle of the stream that washed over smooth stones. A basket made of woven golden rods lay in the grass just asking to be picked up. So Sam carried it over to the stream and dipped it in. With it she watered the Lilies.

 _Mother._

Yes, she would stay here forever and tend to this garden. It needed her. And she, she needed them.

 _Her children_.

She felt stronger here. In control, and right where she needed to be. It was her life's calling. She loved nature and had always wanted to take care of it. And in return nature responded to her.

 _They were her children._

Sam heard a rustle in the bushes. Extending her hand, vines rushed out along the ground and stifled whatever was causing the sound.

The vines slithered back, and wound up over her legs, her torso, her arms. They became bracelets, anklets, a belt. She protected the garden, the garden protected her.

 _She would be their mother._

A Sundew plant nudged her, and she stroked it. Her very core beat for her children. It's where she felt love for them.

 _Be very good. Mother will take care of you._

A breeze as cool as night invaded her garden, and her plants, her flowers, her children, they shivered and stilled. In dismay Mother Sam yelled out, vines lashing out trying to stop the cold from invading anymore. The sun burned, and the cold left in little wisps.

Mother would tend to her garden. Her children would be happy and comfortable. Want for nothing.

Time passed, her children grew happy, strong, and healthy. Sometimes, as she walked through her garden, she would come across human technology - a car, a street lamp, maybe a lawnmower - things that hurt her children. But they would be absorbed into the ground. That technology would not hurt her children anymore.

She would come across pods holding humans too, one cradling a PDA, a man wearing a dress shirt and a tie, a women in a hazmat suit. All in a deep slumber, energy harvested so that her children could be more lively.

 _A name long forgotten._

Oh yeah. She used to know the names of the slumberers. She used to go by one too. But Mother had left that name behind a long time ago, it wasn't needed anymore. Her children didn't have names. So it wasn't important.

A muffled sound could be heard.

 _I know you're in there._

The sky was replaced by glass, and the trees that lined the garden, walls. Someone was knocking at the door.

A human.

No,

a ghost?

He has snow white hair and glowing green eyes. Her children tensed around her, surrounded her, encased her.

 _Let me see._

She pushed past her plants towards the door. She opened it. Stepped out. He was there.

 _Danny_. She remembered his name.

"Sam…"

 _Sam…_ He remembered her name.

"Do you remember me?"

DANNY. She answered him, her voice a deep groan.

"I knew it! You do!" He was bouncing in the air where he floated speaking to her.

WHY ARE YOU HERE

The ghost boy blushed. The colour standing out against his grey complexion. "I've come to get you back. Of course this had to happen right after…" he flew closer to her and landed on the ground. With every word he walked closer to her until he was less than an arm's length away. "After we finally got together. Undergrowth attacked again. Stronger this time. My ice powers aren't enough.

"Please Sam, wake up." Danny closed the gap, pressing cold lips against hers. _He_ was the cold that had invaded her garden.

His hands gripped her forearms, and left frozen imprints on her skin. Danny pulled away, but she grabbed the back of his head, and pushed her lips against his this time, working her way over his entire mouth. Her very core freezing over more with every second that ticked by while they were locked together. Feelings. Memories. Times and places. Faces and relationships all flooded into her. What was she feeling? Why was she allowing the cold to sweep into her?

Her children rubbed against her legs and climbed up her neck. Vines twisted into her hair brought her back, back to them, back to her senses. She shoved the ghost boy away. He stumbled, not expecting the rejection.

She was in tune with her children again, their bond renewed.

WHY DID YOU CALL ME

"Because I know you are still in there. Deep down. And I know I can get you back. I saved you once from Undergrowth, and I can save you again! I just need to know where he is. Will you help me?"

I KNOW NOT WHERE MY MASTER IS. ONLY THAT I KEEP WATCH.

"Please, even if you can only give me a hint."

I CANNOT. PLEASE GO.

"Fight the mind control! Snap out of it! Stop this!" She glanced down at the blue energy that was forming around his closed fist.

MIND CONTROL? I AM NOT BEING CONTROLLED. Mother had her children raise her high into the air to show this ghost child that she and her children were as one being.

"This isn't you, this is not what you would have wanted."

I HAVE MY OWN WILL, MY WILL IS TO PROTECT MY CHILDREN.

A frigid aura now pulsed out from him, a hostile declaration, but his voice stalled her a moment. What he said next was said kindly but didn't make sense. "You wanted harmony. For people and technology to co-exist."

Harmony? I ONLY WANT MY CHILDREN TO THRIVE

"This?" He was yelling now and pointing a translucent hand around at the area around them. Smog stained city blocks were overrun by her children. They had finally won back what had been stolen from them long ago and were healing the land. "This is _not_ what you wanted. The destruction of the world." His anger reminded her that they were not allies of the same cause, they would not see eye to eye, and _he was her enemy_.

DESTRUCTION? HUMAN DESTROYED THE ENVIRONMENT. Vines encased a car and hoisted it into the air behind her but within the line of sight of the enemy ghost child. WHAT GOOD DID THIS DO FOR MY CHILDREN? IT ONLY HURT THEM The vines crushed the car with a scraping moan. HURT ME TOO. HARMONY WAS NEVER POSSIBLE. 'HUMANITY IS A WEED AND WEEDS CAN BE REMOVED'.

"That's one of Undergrowth's lines! Can't you see Sam, that isn't you!

Cold was sweeping into her children. What they felt, she felt. The cold was coming from _him_. He was the cold. He was danger. He was for the humans and he is the enemy. It wasn't safe to talk with him anymore.

GOOOOOO!

The car was chucked at him, and he was hit carried towards the ground by the airborne vehicle. He regained his composure and phased through it before he could be flattened by it. Mother and her children were not giving him a moment to recover and a giant rose grew up in front of her and spun, shooting thorns out at the ghost boy. She uttered a guttural scream and pointed a long fingernail at him, and some vines followed her lead and snaked around her arm and shot out at the ghost boy. Mother and her children violently attacked him, but he managed to fight back. He swung a car door at the plants attacking them then turned invisible.

Cold. Cold. Cold.

He was trying to freeze them.

He blew a frosty breath over her children. She located him. Ectoplasm shot out of his hands, blasting the heads off of her plants that were trying to rip him to shreds with their rows upon rows of teeth. Vines slithered behind him and encased him. He wasn't able to phase through their ghostly grip, but he managed to saw through the binding with a shard of glass from the car window he had tucked away. She screamed in the pain her children felt.

He was blindly throwing his attacks now. A punch. A shot of ectoplasm, a kick then a frosty breath. One ice shot hit her right in the chest, and the same one knocked away the vines suspending her in the air and she fell to the ground, landing in a heap. Her core was frozen from the attack and her children responded with despair and gathered near her to see if she was injured. Even the ghost boy came to her and swept her into his freezing arms.

"Sam, I'm sorry! I was trying not to attack you. Are you ok!?"

She brought back her hand and plowed her fingernails across his face, leaving a matching set of four bloody claw marks. He let go of her in surprise (or pain) and automatically put his hand to his face in shock (or to assess the damage. She wasn't quite sure how to read him). She took the opportunity to have her children wrap around his neck and pull him away from her. She rubbed her chest knowing that the core would thaw and she would be warm again soon, she just needed to be closer to the sun.

The ghost child was trying to squeeze out words, but she didn't allow him to talk. Mother made out the words 'Sam', 'save' and 'please' though.

YOU ARE THE FINAL THREAT. AFTER I ELIMINATE YOU THERE WILL BE NO ONE LEFT TO OPPOSE US. THE ENVIRONMENT WILL BE SAVED. NATURE WILL TAKE BACK THE CONCRETE JUNGLE. THE EARTH WILL BE RESTORED TO ITS FORMER GLORY. A WONDROUS NEW ERA WILL BEGIN. AND I WILL BE MOTHER NATURE. NO. LADY OF THE EARTH. ME AND MY CHILDREN WILL PROSPER.

"Sam, you can beat this."

She kissed the ghost boy Danny again. Sucked out his breath so he wouldn't speak again. Something stirred within her, her hands rested on his neck. But the coolness of her core kept the feeling distant. She pulled away and his eyes searched hers, the corners of his mouth lifting -

She snapped his neck and the vines let him go. His body slumped to the ground and didn't move again.

She rose into the sky close to the sun. She thawed her core, the coldness melting away. Anguish shot through her core, but her children again wrapped around her body, and slithered through her hair and the feeling vanished.

She was home, and this was the beginning of her kingdom.

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 **Author's Notes**

Thanks for reading! I really enjoyed doing a Plant!Sam fic.

Concrit always welcome! :D


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